Glossary
Elmer left no key to the shorthand in his diary. These definitions are editorial: the Navy’s usage of the time and the slang of a destroyer’s signal bridge. Each links to the entries that use it.
Abbreviations and slang
His words stand as written. A definition is offered where one helps.
- BB
Battleship
Read the 6 entries that use it →- CA
Heavy cruiser
Read the 2 entries that use it →- CV
Aircraft carrier
Read the 2 entries that use it →- DD
Destroyer
Read the 3 entries that use it →- AP
Transport
Read the entry that uses it →- T.G.
Task group
Read the 16 entries that use it →- GQ
General quarters
Read the 13 entries that use it →- Can
Destroyer
Read the 14 entries that use it →- Bogie
Something on radar
Read the 12 entries that use it →- CAP
Combat air patrol — fighters flying defensive cover over the fleet.
Read the entry that uses it →- Picket
A destroyer stationed miles ahead of the fleet as a radar early-warning post — the most dangerous duty of the Okinawa campaign.
Read the 30 entries that use it →- Flaghoist
Signaling between ships by hoisting flag combinations — a signalman's core job.
Read the 6 entries that use it →- Suicider
Kamikaze — a Japanese aircraft deliberately crashed into a ship.
Read the 13 entries that use it →- Sleeve
A towed fabric target used for anti-aircraft gunnery practice.
Read the 6 entries that use it →- SM
Signalman — Elmer's rating.
Read the entry that uses it →- DE
Destroyer escort.
Read the 2 entries that use it →- CVE
Escort carrier.
Read the entry that uses it →- Shellback
A sailor who has crossed the equator; first-timers go through a rowdy initiation.
Read the entry that uses it →- Striker
A sailor training on the job for a rating.
Read the entry that uses it →- Betty
Allied code name for the Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine bomber.
Read the entry that uses it →- Kingfisher
A float plane catapulted from battleships and cruisers, used for rescues.
Read the entry that uses it →- Robot bomb
The Ohka — a rocket-propelled, human-piloted suicide missile first used in April 1945.
Read the entry that uses it →
The transcription made around 2005 included a key to some of these abbreviations. We believe it misread three of them: CA as carrier, CV as small carrier, and AP as attack destroyer. Navy usage, and Elmer’s own counts of ships on June 7 and June 17, 1944, point to heavy cruiser, aircraft carrier, and transport.